Study of dyslipidemia in patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome in primary health care

Background
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is associated with several morbidities. The most important ones are obesity, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. A clear relationship of OSAS and dyslipidemia is yet to be demonstrated.

Objectives
To evaluate the prevalence of dyslipidemia as a morbidity associated with OSAS and to understand its relationship with the severity of OSAS.

Material and methods
We randomly selected 92 patients diagnosed until the end of May 2016 with OSAS from two primary health care units and 184 patients as controls (no OSAS diagnosed) from random lists of patients matched in age and gender with patients with OSAS. We calculated the prevalence of the classified comorbidities (overweight, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2 and dyslipidemia) in both groups. We used logistic regression to check the association between them. We evaluated the relationship between dyslipidemia and OSAS severity by using the Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI).

Results
The prevalence of dyslipidemia was 80% in patients with OSAS. Patients with OSAS were diagnosed as overweight (97%), had arterial hypertension (89%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (43%). OSAS was not independently related to type 2 diabetes mellitus (p = 0.101) and to dyslipidemia (p = 0.389). However, overweight and arterial hypertension were related independently to OSAS (p < 0.001) with a risk for OSAS. The prevalence of dyslipidemia in patients with mild, moderate and severe OSAS was 22%, 13% and 25%, respectively.

Conclusions
Patients with OSAS have a high prevalence of dyslipidemia despite not being independently related. There were no statistical differences between patients with mild, moderate and severe OSAS.